A lot has been going on since being back at Kids Club and everyone has settled into their new groups well.  Little group has been great with all the new children from Reception, but since most of them have been coming over the summer holidays, they already knew what was in store.  Middle group has settled with their new leader Michaela, who has been doing lots of physical sessions with them, including dance, sports and group games like charades. 
Big group is very big! Ryan has been doing a fantastic job with them, often having two sessions running at once so that everyone has something to do.  It does mean, though that the sports sessions are always great with so many participating.

Some of our new parents have asked about what sessions are, and the types of things we make the children do.  Well, we never make the children do the sessions, but we do encourage them to join in.  If they don't want to, then they can find something else to do in the room that they are in.  Some of the big group children like to get a book and read, and little group are happy to get the train set out.  Our main objective for kids' club is that all the children are safe and happy.  

The types of sessions we do varies week to week, with Little group following the same interests as school is doing in Reception, and Middle and Big planning with the children so that everyone gets a say in what they want to do.  We have a good mix of sports, games, cooking and baking, arts and crafts, with opportunities to go to the park and playground to just play and run around.  

I'll try and get back into keeping this blog up to date along with photos, meanwhile, please leave a comment, or just tell Joe you've read the blog.  It would be nice to know I'm not just talking to myself.

Welcome back,
Sorry there haven’t been any updates over the summer holidays, we’ve been really busy.
Since we’ve been back, we have had a new member of staff start!
I’m sure you’ve all already met Michaela, she’s our new middle group leader!  She has already made herself at home and taken middle group to be her own. 
There has been lots of change in the groups as well with children moving up in their classes at school, which also means that they move up in groups here as well.  Little group is Reception and Year 1.  Middle group is Year 2 and 3 and Big group is Years 4,5 and 6. 
Already, there have been loads of fun sessions, including some new ones!  Michaela has introduced a hall game called Captains Coming, where the children have to listen to different instructions, and not be the last one to do it.  Such as, scrub the deck: all the children drop to the floor and scrub it!
Big group have been doing lots of pixel art, something that really settles them all down.  They have also done some of the old favourites, like Mafia and A-Z quiz.
Ryan has also introduced a game called Higher or Liar.  Two children against each other, take it in turns to guess how many of a certain category they can do.  If the other child thinks they can do more, then they think of a higher number, if not, they call the other a liar, and then they have to do it.  They have 30 seconds.
Lots of time spent on the park and outside this week, making the most of the random sunny weather, so lots of Capture the Flag, Spanish Tig and football.
All three groups have talked about the rules to follow while at Kids’ Club and come up with them together so that they all agree, and all understand.
Little group have made a special tree for their room with all the children’s handprints on it for ownership of their group.
All three groups have baked since we’ve been back, some better than others, and all have played some big group games and lots of creative activities too. 
Busy days!
 

​Lots of fun and exciting things have happened this week that I’m bound to have forgotten some of the things we’ve done.
First of all, we’d like to welcome all the new children and staff to our Summer Playscheme! Lots of children from Moorside Kids Club have joined us, as well as the staff there to coordinate a big playscheme.  This is a great opportunity for children to develop new friendships, and rekindle old ones for the children who may only see each other every summer.
We’ve made the most out of the lovely warm weather we’ve been having with lots of sessions outside, including Stool Ball, Football matches, running games and the park next to the club.  We have also been on a trip to the local park nearby in Fairfield.  We use the cycle tracks, so it is a really nice and safe walk to the park, then there is loads of space for the children to play. We have also had games of rounders out on the field and dodgeball in the hall.  So, lots of physical games this week.
We have also been taking part in lots of craft activities, like making Forkie from the new Toy Story film, making group signs with paint and our handprints, and also coming up with rules for the group to follow.
Some groups have also been playing Pictionary, we have large whiteboards we can use to play many games on and this is always a hit. We have also had games of Mr and Mrs where friends sit back to back and they have to agree on questions asked to get a point, such as “who is the funniest?”
In the hall, we have been playing different parachute games!  Each group have played different games, like Sharks and Lifeguards, Fruit Salad and Popcorn.  The hall has also been used for an energetic game called All Over, where hundreds of little ball pool balls are scattered and two teams face each other to push and throw as many ball over to the other side of the hall as possible.
Little group have been doing lots of painting on different materials, and they made some great art on large paper plates.  They have also been making art on the playground with floor chalks.
Some groups have made the most of the kitchen and have baked some cupcakes! This is a great session for children to have a go at baking and helping with all the different instructions, and then they get to have a treat at the end!
We were very lucky this week to be invited to join the Youth Group that is running at the same time as our club in another part of the building as they were having a Bug Roadshow.  Lots of different creepy crawlies and reptiles were brought in for the children to hold, stroke or look at from a distance as was the case for some of the children. There were snakes, snails, cockroaches, tarantulas, stick insects.  Take a look though the photos below!

​Lots of big sessions we’ve had these past two weeks, with a number of them joining up to have bigger games of rounders and capture the flag.  We have made use of the park, as usual, which is especially nice in the weather we have been having, and it gives some of the children some time to play with friends that are on the park with their parents.  We have also joined Big and Middle group when it was quiet to have a game of Stool Ball in the hall, which is a staff favourite to play.
There have been lots of games played as well during free choice and also spilling into some sessions.  The number one choice at the moment has been the card game Uno! Which has had children from all groups and staff taking part, certainly a crowd pleaser. We’ve also had many more chess sessions and also multiple games of charades.
Big group have had games of Mafia, (think wink murder, but with more narrative) which has been a hit, and middle group have been playing Bingo!
Little group have been keeping up with the children’s interests and have made their own versions of Forkie from the now Toy Story film.
Big group have been making friendship bracelets with wool and string, and some have also made book marks.  There has been painting just using black and a stippling effect to creature shade and texture to the paintings, and they have also had a go at creating some cubism style painting as well with a bit of a twist. 
Some children wanted to continue pixel art and others have been making their way through our big group library that is in their room. 
Middle group have been making paper aeroplanes along with some of middle group, and big group managed to get involved with it also. 
As usual, cakes have been made in middle group with Alison which looked amazing!
On the last day of term, we have kept things nice and relaxed.  Many of the children have brought in their own toys as it was toy day at school, Ryan is leading a pool session and there is also the PS4 out for the children to take turns with, not to mention the rest of the usual activities we have out anyway.  If the children want to, they can make music requests as we have brought the speakers in to play some music while they play.
One last note,
We are sorry to say that Alison is leaving us to go onto her new job.  She doesn’t want to make a fuss and so hasn’t told anyone, but today will be her last day.  We wish her luck and all the best, and she will be missed here at Kids Club.
Alison will be returning with her children, so at least we will still see her in some capacity!!
That’s it for After School Club until September, but there should be updates for the Summer Holidays, so stay tuned!
 
 

​We’ve had some great joining up sessions this week with big and middle group, along with one session with all three groups!
Big group have been loving drawing pixel art.  We have lots of squared paper and some printed out examples for them to copy or change to suit their own.  They love pixel art and find it really rewarding. 
They have also been into making friendship bracelets, and one of the girls was able to show all her friends how to do a completely new style that they hadn’t seen before! These two sessions were repeated a few times because the children couldn’t get enough of it.
In the hall, big group have been playing a game, called Wallop the Cone.  Two cones are placed equal distances to one that is in the middle, then the children take it in turns, one against another to slide a beanbag and hit the cone in the middle.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be a wallop. Simple game, really fun.
Middle group joined big group in a game of rounders that came down to the wire. Both teams had played equally well and it all came down to the last batter.  Nothing better than a close game!
Middle group have also been playing charades together, one of our games that we have out for free choice time, and also some A-Z quiz games, and Pictionary!
In the hall, Middle group have been playing dodgeball, a staple in that group, and also Stool Ball, a favourite of Big group that Alan actually introduced.
Middle group have also been really lucky in that some of them on Monday got to make cookies.  They were made perfectly. Really big, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies.  See Alison for more details!
Little group have been looking at our favourite film and book characters, with lots of the children talking about Forkie, from the new Toy Story film and then drawing them.  They have also been talking about how there will be new children starting in little group in September as new receptions!
They have also been making handprints with things that they find important to them so display on their board in the End Room, some of them are highly detailed!
Little group have also been on the park and played tig again, and have also played some Hangman on the whiteboard.  Some of the children are really good at it, and were getting the word or phrase just from one letter! Genius!

This week saw two big rivalries go head to head.  Middle group Vs Big group in a game of Rounders.  We are lucky enough to have a rounder pitch painted on the field, so we took the game there.  We gave the children a choice of bats to make it a little easier, either a rounders bat, or a plastic tennis racquet. Nothing better than playing rounders in the sunshine.  The children all came back in after session looking thoroughly warn out. 
Big group have played some name that tune this week, with DJ Ryan playing the latest chart hits for the children to guess. They get pints for the song title, artist and any featuring guests on the track.  To keep some of the children with a better taste in music involved, Ryan also plays some classics, like Queen and the Ghostbuster Theme, which every child seems to know.
Little group have kept it magical with making and decorating unicorn heads, which were then laminated and hidden outside for the children to find.  Each unicorn has a number on it to help with their number recognition.
Middle group have made some movable artwork this week using split pins.  They had a disassembled bear body to decorate then put together with split pins to make a puppet.  Some children decided to make their own design if they didn’t want a bear.
Big group and Middle group have made pizzas this week using wraps as a base.  This is a great idea for a healthy snack at home too.  Just use a plain tortilla wrap, tomato puree, then topped with your choice of toppings.  We had cheese, peppers, salami and pepperoni. 
Middle group have been having some great participation in the hall with Bench ball this week.  Some of the children didn’t think that they would be any good at it, but Alison assured them that by taking part and just having fun they would be fine.  Turns out, that those children had a great time.  Alison was really pleased with her group and praised them for having the best session in a long time together.
Big group have played some dodgeball this week, always a firm favourite.  We often have different rules for different games.  We will start off with using hands as a blocking defence is ok.  But then, the next game, hands aren’t safe, which makes for a quicker and more frantic game when children forget that they aren’t allowed to touch the ball until it has bounced.
All groups have enjoyed a trip to the park this week, again, making most of the weather.  Unless any of you are unsure, we do have a private gate into the park, so that there is no need for anyone to go onto any roads or anything.  It means that we can also use the park and the back playground for multiple sessions.
Little group have been flexing their talents by engaging in some painting.  We have recently got some new paint brushes and paint pallets, so the children were excited to use new things!
Middle group have also been excited to use their new pens for some colouring activities.  We are taking extra care to make sure lids stay on the pens after use though.  They have also been making some jewellery using various beads.  Most children made bracelets which were beautiful. 

​Sorry, not been able to update the past two weeks so here it is all in one!
We’ve debuted a new game in bog group, which is something like Mr and Mrs, where questions are asked of two children who consider themselves good friends and know a lot about each other, then the rest of the children ask them questions and see if they agree.  Who’s the funniest, that kind of thing. It went down a treat and we’ve been asked to do it more often.
We also debuted a new game suggested by one of the children, called “what’s in the box?”, quite self-explanatory, the children feel inside a box without looking, and try and guess what the object is.  We put in quite ordinary objects, mainly scoured from Mucky Pups, and the one that puzzled them all, was an orange.
Outside, making the most of the weather, big group played Spanish Tig on the field, while Middle Group played a big game of football and Little group have been out doing a unicorn hunt! (they hid little paper unicorns outside, and then found them again).
Middle group have also been playing lots of games in the hall, including a firm favourite, Parachute games, and dodgeball. Big group played a running game of connect 4 in the hall using bibs and a large connect 4 board on the ground that they have to run and place their 4 bibs one at a time to make 4 in a row.  If all the bibs have been placed with no winner, the next in line has to move one, until eventually there’s a winner.
As a whole group, we all played hide and seek when it was quiet and the children love it!
Big group have been lucky enough to play pool when the numbers go down and also joined up a couple of times with middle group to go to the park.  Little group have also been on the park, and used the space with the obstacles to play tig. 
All groups have played Bingo this week, which is always a surprising hit with all the children, so much so, middle group played it twice.
Little group have also been looking at planning a leaving party for one of the groups, a sad time seeing someone leave, so we’ll make the most of them while they are here.
As a treat, little group made butterfly shaped chocolate chip cookies, and middle group made biscuits.
All this, on top of the free drawing, board games during free choice and the endless games of football outside before sessions, the children haven’t stopped!
 
 
 

​This week, Big group have been busy with lots of physical activities.  We have played a game of capture the flag out on the field, where the children can use areas of the field to their advantage by hiding behind the trees to trick the opposition. 
They have also enjoyed a game of bench ball, a game we haven’t done for a while, and which some of the children were a little sceptical about, but soon realised they loved it.  It was a great success.
Big group have also played a game of Bingo!  This always goes down a treat, and Joe did his best to try and make up rhymes for each number. 
A usual favourite, Big group played Mafia in our room.  Some of the children didn’t want to play, but wanted to read some of new books that are up there.  Joe has made a mini library full of books by David Walliams and Michael Morpurgo as well as others. 
 
Middle Group have also been very busy, making chocolate cupcakes in the kitchen, dodgeball in the hall and capture the flag outside on the pitch.  They have also had some calmer sessions this week, such a Bingo (which still got loud as they get quite excited), Pictionary on the whiteboard and other board games.  There are a few in Middle Group that really like a game of chess, which has been mentioned before in other blog posts, it’s become a spectator sport with a lot of children wanting to learn the game.
Middle Group have also been doing some colouring sheets and free drawing which is a great, calm session when they are all getting a little too giddy.
 
Little Group have been talking a lot about feelings this week, and coupled with that are in the process of making a kindness jar.  This is to encourage children to be more kind to each other at Kids Club, and hopefully, to continue at home and school as well.
They have also done some baking of Chocolate cupcakes in the kitchen, and everyone who made one got to take one home when they were ready.  We always do baking on a first session to try and make sure they are cooked before anyone goes home, so sometimes children do miss out on taking one.  However, we do baking a lot, so everyone, at some point, will get to take a cake or some other treat home. 

​Lots of fun activities this week with a big range of children to take part.  Some days, we had all the children taking part in huge sessions, and other days, small groups branched off to do their own thing.
 
Monday was the busiest day, so we made the most of the large numbers.  We had a huge game of capture the flag on the back pitch, where the game was often won, not by the fastest child as most assume, but by the smallest little group boy who slipped past without being spotted, and was able to get the flag back to his own side. 
We had large junk modelling sessions, made up of loads of cardboard boxes of all kinds of sizes, pringles tubes, egg boxes, you name it.  Some children made a car to fit two people, some children made a shop, or a creature.  Whatever the end result, it is always the paths they took to get there that is the reward.  Most children left their creation on the snooker table, much to the delight of some parents we’re sure.
The children on one of the days initiated a game of hide and seek.  We then made this into a session for all the children, turned off the lights in the building (it didn’t’ make it dark at all, but just made hiding under a chair a little better) and set one seeker off in the hall counting to 50. Some of those children were great at hiding, they didn’t mind squeezing into tiny spaces.
We have done lots of baking over the week, too.  Some of your children may have come home with something delicious, or sometimes we may have had it over snack time.
Joe played a white board game with all the children on Friday, it a game where teams compete against each other to get from one side of the board to the other.  They do this by choosing top, middle or bottom on a grid of 1-20.  Under each space, they may encounter a speed boost to take another turn, an oil slick to miss a turn, or a crash to take them back to the start.  This game is called The Car Race Game.  This game was huge, with 8 teams (we only usually have 3) and a big, climactic ending, with 3 teams all finishing around the same time.
We also had some relaxing sessions, where we had some nice colouring sheets of different complexity for the younger and older children, played some Mafia with the older children, and many of the children have gotten into chess, with friends teaching others how to play.
Little group also enjoyed some parachute games and making robots and unicorns (as you do) while big group played a game similar to dodgeball called War Game – the children build a fort they can hide behind for a portion of the session, then using the kind of balls you’d find in a ball pool, they throw them at the opposing team, three hits and you are out. It’s a hugely enjoyable game that encourages team building and also thought into the fort building process too.
Overall, a really fun week! 

Lots of fun this week for your children.  We made the most of the warm weather and all the groups, at some point have made a trip to the park.  Big group really enjoyed a game of tig around all the obstacles and played the floor is lava. 
Big group have also been playing hide and seek in the field, stool ball in the hall with some really high scores.  
There wasn't many left in big group on one day, so we opened up the pool table and middle group have been joining in as well. 
They really enjoyed playing Treasure Island on the whiteboard with forfeits! Ask your children! They have also been designing a logo for a space tourism company which is something that gets them really thinking about what makes an interesting logo.

Middle group have made shortbread biscuits, great dodge ball games and bingo!

Little group have been doing a bug hunt out in the nursery garden.  They found loads of interesting things, and then spent a session drawing them.